Saturday Poem

The Snake Handler

—After Dennis Covington

I’m not long for this
world, the young man

said nonchalantly.
The next night I

watch him at church. Why
would one take up

death, suicide? He
grasps the rattler

from the wooden box.
Horrified, I

can’t look away. He
lifts the serpent

slithering, tongue out
straight in my face—

all the madness and
insanity

of my faith I’ve tried
to keep hidden.
.

by Will Wellman
from Echotheo Review
4/30/2014